1. Go platform-neutral: Unless you're the boss, you'll be hard-pressed to get your whole team logging in to a site they've never seen before. If you can meet your needs with a site like Huddle or Manymoon that connects to a network your colleagues already use, you'll be ahead of the game.

2. Consider your growth: Your team may be small now, but if it's rapidly growing you may end up ditching simple services like Remember the Milk after a short time, which means migrating your tasks and your team. If you think you'll need a robust project management system within a year's time, make the leap now and save headaches down the road.

3. Avoid oversharing: Just because your productivity software can connect to Facebook and Twitter doesn't mean it should. Although your colleagues may be impressed by your constant stream of achievements, most of your personal friends will likely find the updates irritating.